Ben Sorenson

CANDIDATE SUMMARY

My goal is to continue learning new skills within leadership roles in the information technology industry.  I have a proven history of delivering consistent value in an iterative fashion for organizations, clients and customers.  I do this by creating a shared vision behind a product roadmap to align goals and then remove any ambiguity that arises during the project.  I am happiest in roles where I have the freedom improve the processes and methods teams work within, while delivering quality products.

DEMONSTRATED SKILLS AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

• I led Agile transformations in both roles at my last 2 employers (YA and TCF) that established an agile methodology that fit within the organizations’ culture
  • In both cases the immediate benefit was a backlog system that provided:
    • A method to prioritize multiple competing interests
    • Visibility to all parties (management, sales, IT, etc.)
    • Improved team productivity via clear goals and time protection
    • Timely delivery of multiple simultaneous projects
  • In both cases I provided training for management, sales, quality assurance (testing), developers, reporting/analytics teams and other teams
  • In both cases I grew a culture of continuous improvement by creating an environment that focuses on resolution and evolution

• Led a project to create a text communication (SMS/MMS) management system that managed multiple SMS/MMS service providers through a new service layer that allowed standardized interaction for all YA systems regardless of integration differences between service providers.  This project provided:
  • Strategic value by changing from tightly coupled to loosely coupled integration
  • Standardized data for reporting and analytics across multiple service providers
  • Internal tool that allowed non-technical staff to launch and manage text campaigns without IT development reducing cost and increasing profitability

• Product owner on the 2019 Lowe’s Spring Saturday national text promotion where winners received immediate store credit virtual card reward
  • Financial success for Lowe’s resulting in over 9M in revenue in a single day

• Product standardization project to update the YA sweepstakes product that resulted in a 50% reduction in level of effort (LOE) and delivery time for all subsequent sales

• Led an effort to improve integration with Meta Bank and reduce API failures from over 10% to less than 1%

• Led a team in the creation of an emergency solution to honor a commitment that Bud Light made to “buy everyone in the city of Philadelphia a beer” after the Philadelphia Eagles won the 2018 Super Bowl
  • The project was up and running in 4 days total